14 comments:

My first time at a cyclocross event - although I have ran the harriers v cyclists at Irvine a few times (as a harrier).In 30 years of racing I can honestly say that was the best day out I've ever had.I didn't do very well and I was badly let down by my equipment - cheap full suspension mountain bike is not recommened for that much mud - but I was buzzing all night.

As a constructive feedback (please take as such) the technical features were good but I think effort should be made at future races to cut the quantity of soft grass riding. It doesnt last more than 2 races and the claggy mud is highly destructive and not involving to ride through - 23 of 55 riders did not finish the senior race. Good racing comes from competition but its difficult when so many drop out. Prehaps we should all go SS ;-)

I think it is just a feature of our wet summer that the ground has never dried out, it is much muddier this year I reckon. I don't mind a bit of dirt but I think after the horror that was plean, the track's need modified a bit to take account of the state of the ground... by the time the seniors race starts the track is wrecked. Most of Strathy was fine - the field was the killer. My bike gave up after lap three, and pretty much wouldnt work properly after one trip over the marsh and annoyingly as I felt great! The organisation was great as ever and if the track held up, it would have been a belter.

I think as cyclocross is a grass roots discipline of the sport bringing in new riders it's important that the courses are designed assuming that most riders only have 1 bike. If the courses go through too many sections that are likely to destroy bikes then there's a danger it will become too elitist where only riders with 2 bikes can race and the rest are left with broken bikes. Strathclyde was a great course and a great event but in light of the carnage the field caused it might have been better to keep to the bottom of the field and try to avoid the wet ground.

I agree with the sentiment above. I've been loving the series and the organisers have been putting in a fantastic effort but the Strathy park bog fest (and mech eating stone chips) were too much of a bike killer to be fun. It's a shame as the other woody bits were great! I know there are minimum track width restrictions for CX but having lots of grass just does not seem to work when it's this wet, and give a big advantage to those with two cross bikes.

All feedback is good and taken in a positive way. The worst section on Sun, before and after the ever growing hurdles was a last minute addition as the route that you came down from the top last year and cut into the main field just at the start line, had a huge deep puddle of soft mud which not only was completely stinking but had an oily film on it. As it would have been at the bottom of a fast descent, and it did sink unto your axle, there could have been a lot of people eating said mud and that was a concern. We did take out the grass climb to the top and gave you an easy ash path climb :-). Next year our options will be to create an obstacle to take you onto the top of the wall at the arena end of the field. I do want to keep the course as fast as possible with some tech bits in but certainly not a bike breaker. Also did anyone notice that amount of bikes in the pits during the youth race...Keep the feedback coming plsMichaelEKRC

I personally thought the course was good and much preferred the gravel climb to the grass one last year. However, I was in the senior race and unfortunately the course was pretty trashed by the time we got to it and the bottom half was a bit too much of a slog to be enjoyable. I also was one of the 23 odd DNF's in this race with a sheared off rear mech which is probably getting on for too many in a race if they were mostly down to mechanicals. An idea that would be a bit more work for the marshals would be to widen out the taped areas on the field sections as the races progress throughout the day. Keep it down to the required 3m or so for the juniors, widen out a bit for the vets and more for the seniors as required. This would give all races a fresh shot at the sloggy bits. This would have also worked for some of Plean but won't work if landowners have asked you to keep to the edge of fields etc.Just an idea but i guess on the day each race has the same conditions for all.Hopefully this is constructive feedback on what was a very well organised, sign-on, marked-out, marshalled event.Cheers

Looking at the results from this year and last year there's around 100 more riders than last year which is almost double. The vets race went from 50 to 100+. If there's double the riders, the course is always going to get cut up a lot than normal. Cross is getting more and more popular which is great news, it just means the courses might have to change a little to take into account all these extra riders.